My 2022 on the podium will end in a city that I love very much: Bologna. I would like to be able to add, in a magnificent theatre, the historic Teatro Comunale, but because of the restoration work that is being carried out there,

Presented here in the critical edition edited by Rebecca Harris-Warrick, which reinstates the original French version as conceived by Donizetti for its first performance at the Théâtre de l’Académie Royale de Musique in Paris in 1840 – La Favorite is an opera which is especially close to my heart.

«Quando tu andrai nelle Indie e nell’interno dell’Africa sentirai Il trovatore»
(letter from Verdi to his friend Opprandino Arrivabene, 2 May 1862)
«Taking a look back over this year,

To be conducting the Festival Verdi, which has been held at the Teatro Regio di Parma for twenty-two years to coincide with the birthday of Italy’s most emblematic composer, is in itself an honour.